August 31, 1983

Man in the News; First U.S. Black in Space

By WILLIAM J. BROAD

he first black American to soar into space, Lieut. Col. Guion S. Bluford Jr., has in his career followed
a trajectory as sure and graceful as that of the Challenger. Fascinated as a child with things that fly, he
pursued his interest to the point of taking a doctorate in aerospace engineering. A reluctant hero on the issue
of racial barriers, the 40-year-old Air Force officer acknowledged his pioneering role at a recent news
conference, but he stressed that he was more excited about being able to fly on the Challenger.

NASA

Astronaut Guion S. Bluford, STS-8
mission specialist July 12, 1983

He has nonetheless gone out of his way to share with black students his devotion to the art of aerospace
engineering.

This year he visited a predominantly black high school in Camden, N.J., which built an experiment to be
carried aboard the Challenger. ''The students went wild when Colonel Bluford came,'' said one teen-ager
who worked on the experiment. ''He said: 'I'm an engineer, and I'm black and I'm lonely out there.' '' He
Says He Loves Airplanes

On another occasion he described himself as ''quietish person who loves airplanes.''

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. was born in Philadelphia on Nov. 22, 1942. His all-American childhood
included a paper route, Ping-Pong, chess and the Boy Scouts, in which he achieved the rank of Eagle.
While growing up in West Philadelphia, the oldest of three boys, he built model airplanes and upon
entering junior high school he decided to become an aerospace engineer. Encouraging the hopes were his
father, a mechanical engineer, and his mother, a special education teacher in the public school system.

Not everyone shared his dreams. Counselors at Overbrook High School said he was not college material
and suggested that he instead enter a technical school.

Nevertheless, after graduation in 1960 he was accepted into the Aerospace Engineering program at
Pennsylvania State University. There he met his future wife, Linda Tull. He graduated in 1964 with a
bachelor of science degree and joined the Air Force. A Period of Honing

About that time he became fired with an unassuming kind of ambition. School and military records suggest
he went through a determined process of honing, a quiet fight for career advancement that eventually
landed him among the aerospace elite.

In Arizona he attended pilot training at Williams Air Force Base, and he received his pilot wings in January
1965. He then joined an F-4 fighter squadron in Vietnam, flying 144 combat missions, 65 over North
Vietnam.

After combat service, Colonel Bluford taught cross-country and acrobatic flying at Sheppard Air Force
Base in Texas. In 1972, beating stiff competition, he was accepted into the Air Force Institute of
Technology, and graduated with distinction in 1974 with a master's degree in aerospace engineering. He
then went to the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio,
working his way up to chief of the Aerodynamics and Airframe branch.

Studying all the while, he graduated in 1978 with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering and a minor in laser
physics from the Air Force Institute of Technology. His dissertation was titled ''A numerical solution of
supersonic and hypersonic viscous flow fields around thin planar delta wings.''

With almost no hope of success, Colonel Bluford in 1978 applied to the astronaut program, along with
8,078 others. He said he was puzzled when an official of the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration called to chat about the Texas sunshine, until he was asked if he would like to be an
astronaut. 'Hobby Is Going to Work'

The next year he became eligible for a mission. ''It really proved to be better than I expected,'' he said after
entering the program. ''It gives me a chance to use all my skills and do something that is pretty exciting.
The job is so fantastic, you don't need a hobby. The hobby is going to work.''

Colonel Bluford, who prefers to be called Guy, is a mission specialist, one of the new breed of scientific
pioneers who are taking an increasing share of the limelight from the pilot astronauts.

Aboard the Challenger, he will perform experiments with electrophoresis, a way to separate biological
materials according to their surface electrical charge by passing them through an electric field. The
technique may yield new drugs. He will also help launch a communications and weather satellite for India
and put the shuttle's mechanical arm through tests with an 8,000-pound weight. 3 Other Blacks Await
Flights

Though he is the first American black in space, he is not the first black; the Soviet Union placed Arnaldo
Tamayo Mendez, who is Cuban, into orbit in 1980 aboard Soyuz 38. Waiting to follow Colonel Bluford
into space are three other black American astronauts.

The comedian Bill Cosby said the historic flight was a breakthrough for the Federal Government. ''This is
someone who had earned the mission,'' he said. ''Our race is one which has been quite qualified for a long
time. The people who have allowed him to make this mission are the ones that have passed the test.''

Colonel Bluford lives in Houston with his wife, an accountant with an oil concern. Both his sons are
science students in college. ''I try to keep them from feeling pressured that they have to accomplish more
than I have,'' he said. ''I want them to be happy. That's what is most important.''